The miraculous post-Soviet revival of the Russian Orthodox Church, all but destroyed by the end of the Stalinist purges in the 1930s, is one of the great stories of 21st Century Christianity. This revival is now focused on the restoration of church life that saw its great institutions and spiritual treasures  churches, monasteries, seminaries, libraries  more or less obliterated by an aggressively atheist regime. Many of the Churchs best and brightest monks, clergy and theologians were martyred, imprisoned or forced into exile. Yet, plans are now underway to build 200 churches in the Moscow area alone.

It is perhaps impossible to comprehend, without having lived through it, the depths of destruction and despair that Russia had sunk to under the Soviets. Read Aleksandr Solzhenitsyns 1974 essay Live Not By Lies and you begin to comprehend, albeit at a great distance, something about a system that destroyed tens of millions of people:

Things have almost reached rock bottom. A universal spiritual death has already touched us all, and physical death will soon flare up and consume us both and our children  but as before we still smile in a cowardly way and mumble without tongues tied. But what can we do to stop it? We havent the strength.

I went to a music concert composed by Metropolitan Hilarion at a Catholic Basilica, last year he was there, as well as the Catholic bishop I think. I remember they were talking after the concert. The music was really good (it was the Passion according to St Matthew)